Pimpin' a Book That's Not Mine: Kristen Hersh's Rat Girl!

Saturday, September 4

Pimpin' a Book That's Not Mine: Kristen Hersh's Rat Girl!

Some of you obsessive-compulsive fans of mine might remember that I recently wrote about Throwing Muses' early song "Vicky's Box" on my music blog over at Deadbeat Bohemians. (Just kidding! I have no fans.)

ANYWAY, I meant every word of that post and I love Throwing Muses lead singer Kristen Hersh for life. (Though I must admit I love her drummer Dave Navarro more because teenage love never dies.) And I've just found out (hat tip: HilaryWrites) that La Hersh has a new memoir out and I CAN'T WAIT TO READ IT!

Since I always find out about fun things to do after they've already happened, I missed Kristen's appearance at Barnes and Noble at Union Square, where she was interviewed for about an hour, read a few passages, and played a few songs. Thankfully, B&N (whose site, by the way, also sells my book, if you're interested) have a video of the event, which I've embedded above.

The memoir is apparently about the year that Kristen was 18 and her world exploded: record deal for her band, bipolar diagnosis, pregnancy, among other things. (Just like me!) From the passages she read at the event it sounds like she's just as awesome/crazy/hilarious a prose writer as she is a lyricist.

I can't wait for her next memoir, which will no doubt have a chapter covering the time she met me, in 1994, when I was working as a barista at a terrible Starbucks knock-off in London's Covent Garden. I waited on her, her man friend, and my high school crush Dave Navarro. They were just getting out of a radio interview, had stopped into my place of work for an American coffee, and I had a real hard time hiding my fanboy hard-on for all of them. Kristen couldn't order anything with caffeine in it because (she told me in the strictest confidence) she was pregnant again HOW EXCITING! I made her a decaf sugar-free caramel latte with whipped cream because she deserved it: she'd written "Two Step," for God's sake.

I'm sure that experience has as special a place in her heart as it does in mine. And Dave's.